At times I feel like there are so many things I want to do, so much so that I feel I may explode. At other times I've felt so discouraged that I don't want to do anything, and the cycle goes on. Seeing other peoples amazing work with interesting context and designs makes me so depressed. I wonder if my work has ever been or will ever be as good as the designers and illustrators I admire.

It started with a Djembe

I am currently reading the book The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin and just reached the chapter entitled "Being Serious About Play". In that chapter resides the sub-chapter called "Start A Collection". In it the author writes about the joys of collecting and described how she came about starting a collection and it made me realize that I have somewhat created a collection of sorts for myself. Though I don't consciously set out to collect anything, I find myself, when traveling, attracted to buying small musical instruments, or even at one point not so small musical instrument.

I am not a particularly musical person, I don't play music, I'm content to just listen. Yet I bought these mini musical instruments whenever I came across them. These instruments don't necessary have to be native to the country or have any significant history. The fact is I bought it there, therefore it reminds me of it.

It started with a Djembe. Found in Ubud, a small town renowned for its woodcarving, in Bali, Indonesia. Now the significance of it I am not quite sure, but I just know that when I saw it I wanted it. Maybe I just wanted to bang my frustrations away at that time or maybe I was fresh from an event where I joined a drum circle and wanted to feel again that electric coursing through my soul. Whatever it was I had to have it, plus it had amazing dragons carved into the base and it was cheap!

From then on, it was pan flutes in Sarawak, Malaysia. In Sydney, Australia, An aboriginal instrument type thing, like a tube with beans or beads in it. Which makes a soothing sound like light rain hitting metal roofs every time you flip it over. I suppose it's a percussion instrument like maracas. When I went to Taiwan, it's this hand painted porcelain tribal flute shaped like a duck. Cute.

Riight...with the exception of Singapore, Bangkok, Hong Kong, Shanghai and Hangzhou (Ok, thats alot of places I missed, but I would've bought musical instruments from there if I came across any!) I've bought instruments in almost every place I've traveled to! =P

I see the start of a common thread here.

Best advice ever: Do more of what makes you happy =)

Make It Mine

Now that the shop is open. What next?
For the past few months, I've been working with my current company in opening a new fangled concept and lifetyle shop. Working on the website and a little bit of the products, having a hand in the set-up and planning of the project from the beggining, even having a small vote in the pricing of products has definitely been a rewarding experience.

Now the website is live, facebook page is up and twitter account made. I find myself asking what next? Sure if you think about it there's so much more things that need to be done. The marketing of the shop and products, promotions and creating new series of products for our in-house brand. My concern is the lack of experience I have in marketing and promotions. I do collaterals for branding and identity design, designing and executing websites and user interface, okay, but marketing and promotions. This is very new territory. We'll just have to reserach, charge on and try our best, like how one learns to do any new thing, and hope for the best. It may not always work immediately but you'll always learn something from it.

At this moment two great Alanis Morissette songs come to mind "Hand in My Pocket" and "You Learn". "You Learn" is my favourite, with that one line that captures perfectly one of the main resonating mottos that I have held on to: "I, recommend biting off more than you can chew to anyone...". I totally agree.

At the risk of sounding like a crazed Jason Mraz fan, which I am. No doubt. Every morning I wake up to this song:

http://youtu.be/4xoUHC9uRHM

The lyrics say it all.

On a side note, I was thinking on the way back from Taiwan. I'd really love to make a travel list of places I've been to maybe add a little featurette on where I went and want to go to. For the sake of posterity and because my short memory span will surely not help me remember much. Hmm we'll see, if time and energy permits.



That said, on to something completely unrelated. I've gotten into crochet and knitting recently. Just starting is quite a challenge and knitting is a surprisingly technical craft. But I love the idea of making something out of practically nothing, just yarn a couple of knitting needles and a pattern. Crafty stuff apeals to me. Also the look and feel of the different types of yarn are just endless! The colours are delicious and the options unlimited. I'm in looove!

Quote of the day : "Singing & Songwriting is no different than journaling or blogging. You just have to let go, quiet your mind and move your pencil or tongue up and down a lot. Bobby McFerrin said improvisation is the result of not stopping. In my opinion, all inspiration begins with improvisation." - Jason Mraz, from his blog.

Practice Gratitude

I felt completely sucky today. The most ill at ease with myself in a long while. I've always compared myself with other people, a habit I developed perhaps from not feeling like I "belonged" anywhere and being pitted against other kids at school, but thats life. The only time I ever felt good about being anywhere perhaps was in art school. Now all the feelings of insecurity and social inability comes back to haunt me. Thus I get angry, the worst part of it being that I let it out on the people that matters most, my family.

Then I re-discovered a great blog from a really amazing artist. Jason Mraz just seems to practice gratitude everyday, he sings about it and practically lives it. Reading his posts on gratitude just resonated with me. It always calms me down, clears my head a little and makes me go "yeah, that's true, I can do something about this".

I haven't been particularly grateful. Not the type of grateful your parents guilt trip you into by saying things like "I brought you into this world and I can take you out" or something to the effect of "I walked 10 miles in the snow to bring you into this world" (the feel is along those lines, we live in a tropical country btw) but real gratitude. The type that makes you realize you're lucky to have parents to nag at you or a sibling to share things with and roll your eyes at (or with). Also, I am grateful that I have a talent that I want to keep honing and perfecting, something that I am able to still work at.

Learn to be grateful and open towards the experiences received and someday, maybe I'll even be grateful for everything that has happened and is happening, in my life.

Gratitude needs practice.

So this is a note to myself to try to practice gratitude, whenever I can think clearly. It may lower my blood pressure. Or else continue to keep visiting sites like freshnessfactorfivethousand or this one: GratitudeLog. Perhaps we all need a little help from time to time in the gratitude department.

Quote from a smart dude: "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
- Henry David Thoreau

Love this song: Deb Talan of the Weepies - How Will He Find Me

*Edit : Another good quote: The essence of all beautiful art, all great art, is gratitude.

Friedrich Nietzsche (just got it from my quote of the day panel)

Come right on in 2011, not that you need an invitation.

This was what went through my mind on remembering the last day of 2010:

"What a way to spend the last day of the year. With a neck ache and a high chance of getting scorched by falling debris, BUT standing directly under a shower of HUGE fireworks was totally worth it. Magical even. Wave after wave of amazingly beautiful colored chemicals exploding right in front of our eyes, so close you'd think you could almost touch it and some did apparently cause I did hear a few screeches followed by some people madly stamping about. I didn't want it to end. "

Honestly it was a nice way to spend the night. What I initially wanted was to hide at home, watch a DVD or some new years special or something and avoid the crowds. But I'm the type to just go with the flow, so when I was asked to join some friends to go to The Curve to see the fireworks, what else, I said ok lah. It ended up pretty cool too.

Quote of the moment: Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me. That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion.- Albert Einstein

Song of the moment: Simon & Garfunkle - The Only Living Boy in New York

I am rehashing this place. Lets talk about travel, design, art, music, good books, pretty pictures and beautiful words. All the good stuff that matters.

There are close to 7 billion people in this world. O.o

Wall.E

Pixar and Disney are a great match. Pixar has the humor and talent and Disney has the funding. It's perfect. Once again these two major forces have teamed up and brought to life another unforgettable character in the form of Wall.E. From what I see in previews, this little guy is adorable. Pixar could inject personality into a washing machine. I mean they've already done it to transportation vehicles.

While surfing the net for more information on the movie (without reading too many spoilers) I found a pretty good plot synopsis on IMDB. Its a good story on an interesting theory thats out there but doesn't seem too far fetched.


Now Advertlets, will be having a special screening of Wall.E on the 11th of August. Click the link for more info. Hope to see you guys there.

I found some teaser clips on youtube. There's a few of these. I believe some tv spots were shown during halftime at the Superbowl.


Wall-E Meets Headphones



Wall-E Meets Vacuum



Interesting Video on the Bots in the Movie

Made of Honour

Advertlets having a special screening for Made of Honour.
Patrick Dempsey in another romantic comedy. Why am I not surprised?
Ever since Mr.McDreamy got named McDreamy in Greys Anatomy you just knew where this was headed. No action movies for him.

I was surprised though when I saw him in an episode of Will & Grace. He was Will's in-the-closet boyfriend in a couple of episodes. I love Will & Grace, and those episodes were hilarious.

I have to say I'm looking forward to this movie, it seems like a cool show. Fun to be had by all.

I had it all but I misplaced it...

Ah not exactly. This being an account of how I was almost done laying out a post on the recent (not anymore) Sunburst KL music festival and forgot where I put the notepad file I wrote it in.

I believe it was lost forever with my thumb drive. Ah well. The events of the day might be fuzzy but the natural high I got that day/night is firmly tattooed in my subconscious. It must be said, it was THE most awesome, fantastically rocking, mantasmagorical event that I've been to thus far and I'm not saying it just because Incubus was there.

Remind me to rewrite a full account with pictures, for memory preserving reasons, later when work and life doesn't get in the way.

It has to be said though, this is the year of the concert.

This being an account of yesterday and today.

Monday
Wish you were here

Now who YOU are I'm not sure, but I hope you're out there. Someone to share a soul with. Perhaps not in this lifetime or the next but eventually. So this is my love message to you.....GET.ON.YOUR.WAY.RIGHT.NOW.

Now what happened yesterday...hmmm...

This is an obsession, perhaps I just a need to fill some sort of void in my life thus I take on some sort of project. Which usually involves me spending a shitload of money on the aforementioned obsession. So yes I went shopping online (the credit card, ever since I got it has been the bane of my existence). Not that I'm knee deep in debt it's just that it's so easy to buy stuff. So technically I have the possibility to be knee deep in debt. However, all thoughts about future life savings aside, I am now the proud owner of two more Incubus CDs and both of Brandon Boyds art books/journals. I am well stoked, as Kat from LA Ink would say. As well as well broke. Ah well.

Good thing though, these obsessions have posed some sort of learning curve for me though it's one of those things in life where you have to realize it as one...hmmm...I'm BRILLIANT I know =P. Sometimes it's little things like how to handle online purchases (I was buying & selling things online even before I had my own credit card, talk about contributing to the world economy) to stuff like how to deal with people, anticipating what people want and customer service. For someone with an ego problem like me perhaps thats the toughest job ever.

I'm in the design industry, it isn't much better but despite all it's superficialities and downfalls, there's always the potential of job satisfaction and possibility of self progression. It's something that I enjoy doing. Weather it leads somewhere or nowhere. I vow to do what I enjoy and feel right doing. It's my self preservation tactic. Yeah I have a plan. I think, don't I?

I plan to write like this (I use the term write instead of type cause it seems more personal) like I'm talking to a friend or talking to myself and also I'm currently reading Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert, I like her, alot, enamored by her in fact. So there, I explained it as if i need to. =)

Random Quote: I will allow someone to love me. Thats a good line. I like it.

Random Thought: Writing is hard for me, but I want to write. How does that work?



Tuesday
Look Alive

I found out today that the Lucasfilm workshop is actually an internship program for practicing CG artists. Talk about major splash of cold water. I'm not even in that course yet and already they're looking for ppl. Wait for me~! Suppose it's to be expected, they wouldn't do something this big for free. I told you I was smart =P.

Words can't describe how I overflow with what seems like love whenever I listen to Incubus. It's a pleasant little ache in the center of my chest which I hope never goes away everytime I discover an amazing lyric or insane guitar riff, ridiculous bass and mad drums. Their synergy is so tight it seems effortless, which is always a sign of greatness.

I do know one ache I would like to get rid of. Fear. Everyday I can't let go of the fear that I am not good enough. Every new job, every new assignment every new freelance or offer to design I worry I'm not good enough. I wish I could just put things down and not worry so much about how my work will be received. I want to just jump in and close my eyes, drift away on whatever creative wave that carries me and never look back.

I like music

Pulsing, funky vibrations, soulful, deep, sensual, sexy, bass heavy, rocking, overwhelming, mind fuck, amazing guitar riffs, eclectic, catchy, beautiful.

Way to go obvious.

There was something I thought of a few days ago in the middle of the night, while worrying about a slight crisis which I brought upon myself. Laying there feeling sleepy but not being able to sleep, I got up and scribbled something along the lines of "Why are we more concerned with money more than time? As if the former was more important." Immediately after that point I closed my eyes and went to sleep...and woke up 3 hours later.

Club8 + Pelle

Right I was asked/told with arm twisted behind my back to blog about this. =P Nah, just kidding.

Club 8 & Pelle will be stopping by KL to perform for us at KLPac (the KL performing arts center) These talented Indie performers hail from Sweden the land of Abba, Ikea, Swedish meatballs and...well Abba. As I stock my limited knowledge of Sweden with what other things this land is made of I'll make sure to add them in.

Club 8: They've got this retro 60s vibe going but updated. It's just really good and soothing music. Catchy and easy on the ears.

Pelle: He's got some eccentric lyrics. Quite fun to listen to and makes me smile. I mean how can you not with song titles like "I Love You Imbecile" and "Go To Hell Miss Rydell". Catchy too.

I will be going to this event tomorrow night. Just hope I remember how to get there.

Albert Einstein

"My political ideal is democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized. It is an irony of fate that I myself have been the recipient of excessive admiration and reverence from my fellow-beings, through no fault, and no merit, of my own. The cause of this may well be the desire, unattainable for many, to understand the few ideas to which I have with my feeble powers attained through ceaseless struggle. I am quite aware that for any organization to reach its goals, one man must do the thinking and directing and generally bear the responsibility. But the led must not be coerced, they must be able to choose their leader. In my opinion, an autocratic system of coercion soon degenerates; force attracts men of low morality... The really valuable thing in the pageant of human life seems to me not the political state, but the creative, sentient individual, the personality; it alone creates the noble and the sublime, while the herd as such remains dull in thought and dull in feeling..."
---Excerpt from Albert Einstein's, "The World As I See It" (essay).

At no other time do these words seem more relevant than they are now.

I have read this paragraph over and over and I can't stop reading it, not because I don't understand laa but because he hits the nail right on its metaphorical head.

Flawed 1

She is beautiful(to some) but you can tell that it is a flawed beauty.

Definition of insanity

A definition of insanity is doing things the same way and expecting different results. ie running into a wall face first at full speed and not expecting to feel pain the next time your run into it at the same velocity. Or. Repeatedly complaining about the situations you're in and expecting it to sort itself out just by the sheer power of sitting there. Or saying the same things over and over, to somebody who isn't listening.

Yeh, my definition of insanity.

Cool link: A page for the to-do list.
Cool mainly because I see myself as a voyeur and like to observe people.

Listen to: Meshell Ndegeocello - Beautiful

Writing a blog is therapeutic and I do need therapy.

I'm not a blogger . Never was never will be.
But writing a blog is therapeutic and I do need therapy. So once in a while, I try.

The story starts with an innocent looking link to a youtube video of a long forgotten teen idol.

Listening to Kavana songs sent this huge wave of nostalgia crash down on me. Remember him? Kavana? During his time he sent millions of little girls hearts soaring with his catchy pop tunes, pretty boy looks and now, somewhat cheesy image. While all his songs struck chords, 2 songs in particular, body slammed my soul/center/sternum/part between my chests that ache averytime I'm touched or sad. "Thank you" and "Wait for the day". Thank you for reasons between me and very good ol friend of mine. And "Wait for the day" because I realised I felt the same way I did 6-7 years ago listening to that song, my first reaction to the lyrics was to tear up and I thought, I'm still the same person I was then. When I hoped I would change for the better.

I'll end this post with a totally unrelated quote (cause I'm random that way):
Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep.
Scott Adams

Childish Adult Fascinations

Theres this strange fascination I have with pop-up books. You'd think your era of pop-ups would dissapear the moment you turned 10 or younger? but nope not me. I have to take this fascination to adult level. Much like my legos.
Of course, then again, there are people who do take these things to adult level and do they do it well. Just take a gander at these two sites http://robertsabuda.com/ & http://club.lego.com/eng/coolcreations/ to see excellent examples. If being a kid at heart means you get to appreciate cool stuff like this, I hope I'll always stay a kid at heart.

These are so meant for display items man. I'll leave you with a link to youtube of a gorgeous Alice in Wonderland pop-up by Robert Sabuda, which I will have in my hands by the end of this month. Or soon anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qzd1paCUTwE

Chinese aristrocrats in the past, prized texture above all, even taste. Which explains why there still exists such things as Birds Nest, abalone and sharks fin. These delicacies if taken without the added ingredients and condiments would taste absolutely bland and emit very slight fragrances. Of course if it's good enough for the aristrocrats, its definitely better for everyone else so the reputation of these and many chinese delicacies have lived on. The Chinese not content to just eat common food such as chicken, snake and frogs legs(which by now would be passe) have moved on to more exotic fare such as anything under the sun that moves. 5000 years of adventurous eating folks. Salute to the spirit of experimentation and very good imaginations.